The present invention relates in general to generating a layout for a page on a computer display and in particular to generating a layout for forms useable within a web-based graphical user interface.
XML (Extensible Markup Language), a subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), is the universal format for data on the World Wide Web. With XML, users can create customized tags that enable the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between individuals or groups of individuals. XML is a complementary format to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and is similar to HTML, as both contain data useable for describing the contents of a data field, from a single line data entry up to a page or complete data file.
Generating an effective Graphical User Interface (GUI) usually requires two main sets of specification data. First, an XML schema is used to specify attributes of each subset (such as a data field) of a web page, such attributes including, for example, length, data type, and format. Second, a layout file may be provided to define a geometric mapping of the respective data fields within the web page user interface. Such layout information may be generated from algorithms based on the attributes of the individual data fields, or other criteria incorporated into a web page generation tool.
Existing methods for generating layout information impose a computational burden on one or more computing systems responsible for generating the desired user interface. Moreover, the resulting layout may not necessarily end up being user friendly. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a simpler and more reliable system and method for providing layout information for a computer user interface.